Farm Life

Though not for me in a permanent setting, I have a full understanding of why my mom was happy to trade her city life for the farm life. Peaceful. Quiet. Beautiful. Serene.
This is my last post about my Kentucky trip last month. I had to dedicate an entire post to these barns because I'm in love with them. Feel free to click on the individual images to show them larger.

Grand Bay on a lazy Sunday

Sunday mid-morning, Brett and I went for a ride out to Grand Bay. We've been there several times before, but we've never taken Cindy Lou (our dog) with us. She had a wonderful time exploring! The weather couldn't have been better. We saw a cluster of wild hogs, a few herons, and even three alligators! It is so relaxing out there!

She must have thought I was insane...

So... funny story yesterday. One of our co-workers received flowers that delivered for her birthday last week. Yesterday they finally opened, and man were they amazing. I had taken my lunch to work, so I had no intentions of leaving, but as I walked my her desk to the kitchen area my mind wandered as I looked at the beautiful bouquet of tulips.
After eating and getting a couple of things done, I couldn't stop thinking about the flowers... and how nice they'd look if I took pictures of them. (Yes, honestly, that's what was going through my mind.) I walked back to her desk and asked that if I went home and got my camera would she let me. She looked at me a little off, but said "Kelly, do whatever you want. I'm sure you'll make them more beautiful." So off I went! Here's the finished product.




I added a bit of texture to the image, which is something that I never do... but I thought that it would be appropriate to add a little moodiness to it! It's my favorite of the bunch, but here are a few others too.

Christmas in Florida

Every three years, my family has a tradition of going to my grandparents house in Fort Lauderdale for Christmas. My mother is one of five children, so you can imagine that meeting up every year is next to impossible... so, we've made this arrangement and it's a perfect situation.
I grew up in Florida, and love returning when I can to take in all of the surroundings. Of course, it's the people that I love the most (much of my family still lives down there) but I cannot get over the beauty of South Florida.

One of the exciting things we did this trip was to take a water taxi through the intercoastal waterways to see all of the mansions in the area. I was blown away by their beauty, and distinctly remember our guide saying that one house cost $40,000 in property taxes a month. Holy cow! Here are a few images from the water taxi trip.










My husband loves fishing, and while we weren't able to go out on the water, we did go to the largest Bass Pro Shop store in the country and visit the International Fishing Hall of Fame museum. It was awesome learning about the history of fishing in Florida and about the conservation efforts that are being made to preserve the natural wildlife. They even had virtual fishing opportunities... which we had a little too much fun with! :)



Last, but not least, on my last full day in Florida I took a walk around my grandparent's condo with my camera and got some great images of flowers. Most of what you'll see are hibiscus (my favorite flower) but others are tossed in there too. I just could not get over how beautiful the landscape is!